Tales of the Dawn
by ncfan
Summary: NaruKarin, AU. On the battlefield, Naruto finds himself learning the importance of living, the lesson taught to him by the last person he would have expected.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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_Smoke flashed through his mind as the sound of gunfire ran rampant across the plains. Sharp screams and rabid howls greeted him with an unearthly, hellish chorus, deafening and disorienting._

_A mortar blast sent up plumes of soil and blood, and after something hard and sharp hit his head, he knew no more, rolling on the ground until the rocks tore into his skin and ripped his helmet from his head._

A faded yet bright light shone beyond the barrier of his closed eyelids, coaxing him back to consciousness.

Naruto woke up not to the bitter cacophony of screaming bullets and dying men, but to silence, peaceful and welcome. Groggily (he must have been injected with something while he was out), he opened his heavy eyes, and tried to get a good look at his surroundings.

Inwardly, Naruto cursed the circumstances that made all hospital tents look alike. A dull, light-colored tarp fluttered in a breeze outside, carrying the hot air inside and putting dust in his mouth to make him cough. The place had a sharp, sterile smell; everything, from the cots to the equipment to the refrigerated cabinets to the cheap desk had been washed down with antiseptics.

_Have I been captured? _Naruto wondered grimly, reaching for his trench knife (he kept it in a holster on his thigh) and finding it gone. He had been stripped down to his underclothes. Everything was gone, his heavy turtleneck shirt and trousers, his rifle and handgun and trench knife, camouflage and armor (that and the clothes were absolutely unbearable in the heat), his helmet and the green Kevlar vest the Konohagakure forces issued to everyone above the rank of genin. Even his leather boots and cotton socks were gone. Naruto reached his hand to his neck and found that his dog tags and the necklace Tsunade had given him when he was a kid were missing. He didn't see any of it anywhere.

He wasn't strapped to the bed, nor were there any guards at the tent flap, but all that meant was that maybe the enemy didn't think he was much of a threat. Naruto fell back on the cot, mind whirling. He knew he had a tendency to overreact, but with the situation he was in, he had to assume the worst.

The tent flap was pushed aside by a small latex gloved hand, and automatically, his military training kicking in, Naruto stiffened, preparing himself for interrogation.

A young woman, maybe his own age, stepped inside. She wore a long white lab coat, buttoned down to the waist and dark pants and shoes. She had bright red hair pulled back in a long ponytail, pale skin unusual to such a hot, dry post, thick glasses and curiously crimson-tinted eyes. Naruto thought she looked like his mom.

Most interrogators Naruto knew of weren't attractive young women, but he didn't see how that would stop the enemy from employing them anyway.

Naruto sighed. "Name: Uzumaki Naruto. Rank: Jonin in the Konohagakure High Army. Registration Number: 0-1-…"

"Quit being melodramatic," the young woman, plainly a medic, snapped, though a grim humor played around her eyes. "You're _not_ a P.O.W. What, do you want to be one? You're in your own military camp, safe and sound."

Naruto smiled. At least he didn't have to worry about _that_. "Did we win?"

The medic smiled back, face relaxing, and sat down on the cot next to his, folding one leg over the other. "Yeah, we did. Sent those Suna soldiers running for cover. We didn't even have any fatalities this time."

The skirmish had reminded Naruto a lot of a demonstration he had participated in when he was seventeen. If he remembered, it had been because of the tax rises due to increased military expenditures (The irony of it never failed to strike him now, and he knew he could credit further demonstrations to the fact that the flow of equipment and supplies from Konoha had started to trickle in the past few months).

Probably the only reason it had reminded him at all of that day's battle had been because when the crowd started to get rowdy, the nervous troops called in to survey the demonstration and make sure it didn't get out of control fired into the crowd. Four had been killed, more than a dozen more wounded by gunfire. Naruto had been sent to the hospital with a concussion; he had been knocked to the ground by the stampeding crowd fleeing gunfire and the blasts of water cannons. It had only been Sasuke and Neji noticing that he was unconscious and carrying him to safety that had kept him from being wholesale trampled by the crowd.

_Well at least nobody got killed this time._

"Was I the only casualty?" It was strange, referring to himself as a casualty, and Naruto was amazed at how dry his voice was; he hadn't been out in the arid plains that long, had he?

The pink lips moved from a satisfied smile to a somewhat relieved one, though she would probably never let on to it. "You're the only one I couldn't send away with bandages." The redhead stood up and moved towards the cabinet with quick, fluid steps, taking out a small bottle and scrutinizing it intently, adjusting her glasses absorbedly. "Don't you even want to know what your injuries are?"

He grinned and shook his head, setting off a slight pain wave as he did so which he ignored. "Not really. Anything short of mortally wounded and dying doesn't really register on my radar."

The medic's red eyes settled on him incredulously. "I can see why you're in Special Op.s. You're crazy." She palmed the bottle onto her gloved hand, and came to stand by Naruto's cot; he propped himself up on his shoulders. "You have lacerations on the back of your head from shrapnel; we're not sure how it got past your helmet. The force of the blow was what made you pass out, and you know how much scalp wounds bleed.

"The bleeding's stopped, and you don't seem to have a concussion or any broken bones, so I'm discharging you. You'll be lightheaded for the next few days; the higher-ups probably won't want you running assignments. Take two of these pills twice a day—" she shoved the bottle into Naruto's hand "—with water; they're antibiotics, about the only thing in medicine we still get in decent supply." She rolled her eyes and Naruto grimaced. The Special Op.s unit weren't getting replacements for their weapons if they were damaged during battle anymore; he felt her pain. The medic smiled slightly. "You're free to go."

Blond eyebrows rose far into his hairline. "Uh, my clothes?" Naruto asked slightly indignantly, gesturing to his bare chest and boxers.

She smirked. "Look under your cot."

Sure enough, Naruto's shirt, pants, socks and boots were there, folded neatly one on top of the other, the boots to the side. The dog tags and Tsunade's necklace were lying on top of his shirt.

While his back was turned, Naruto heard the thick, heavy swish like rough sandpaper of the tarp, and whipped around. She was leaving, her red ponytail swinging wildly.

"Hey, wait a second!" Naruto called. She turned around, eyes searching. "What's your name?"

She smiled slightly. "Karin."

Later that night, Naruto was back in the men's tent, sitting on his bunk and composing a letter by flashlight.

_August 11_

_Dear Sakura-chan,_

_It's 2234 where I am and the guys are starting to get resentful of my flashlight, so I'm going to have to make this one short._

_It's been two years, five months, and seventeen days since I've seen you and everybody else. I miss you guys a lot; all the pictures and the stuff you send has been really great; it's probably the only thing keeping me sane at this point. Tell Sai thanks for that little painting he sent me; it looks like it could be real._

_Again, I'm sorry I missed yours and Sasuke's wedding this spring; I don't think I've thanked you for the pictures you sent. You looked great in that dress._

_Tell Kankuro that yes, I __will__ tell Sasori hello if I see him._

—Naruto rolled his eyes as he wrote. Sasori was the second general in Suna's army, and had known Kankuro, Temari and Gaara as children from when they had still lived in Suna, having been a close friend of their mother's. Given Sasori's reputation, Naruto was sincerely hoping he _wouldn't_ see him.—

_I'll be sending home some pictures of the landscape; I took them with a cheap little disposable camera another soldier got from home recently and didn't want._

_I have learned something new, Sakura-chan. I now know how to develop film in a dark room. The photographers were really using it to develop photos the pilots at the base twenty miles west of here took of what they think are weapons caches, but they let me develop my pictures there too. How good the pictures are is a matter of debate. I hope you guys all like them, and I think Sai will probably get some use out of them._

_One last thing. I met this girl today, a medic named Karin. She sorta looks like that old picture I have of my mom from when she was still alive; they have the same hair. She seems nice, and I think you'd like her; she's crazy like us._

_Tell Sasuke-teme, Lee, Kiba, Sai, Ino, Shino, Choji, Tenten, Hinata-chan, Shikamaru, Temari-anesan, Neji, Kankuro, Gaara, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Iruka-sensei, Tsunade-baachan and Shizune-neechan I'm alright._

_Your friend,_

_Naruto_

_

* * *

_

This isn't entirely based on the real world. The five nations are sort of divided into city-states, that alternate between periods of war and peace. There is modern technology and weaponry here, and no one uses ninjutsu or genjutsu in battle, but it does still slightly resemble the canon universe_. _This is going to be a threeshot.

The Special Op.s are pretty much the ANBU in this world._  
_


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to **Masu Trout** for reviewing, and for anyone else who is reading but just isn't willing to review (I've seen the number of hits for this fic so far; I may not know who you are, but I know you exist), I hope you like this chapter too.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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_This is the clock upon the wall  
This is the story of us all  
This is the first sound of a newborn child,  
Before he starts to crawl  
This is the war that's never won  
This is a soldier and his gun  
This is the mother waiting by the phone,  
Praying for her son_

_Pictures of you, pictures of me  
Hung upon your wall for the world to see  
Pictures of you, pictures of me  
Remind us all of what we used to be_

—_Pictures of You_ by The Last Goodnight

* * *

_Naruto,_

_Wow, the mail system has really improved! It only took four days for your letter to get back to Konoha this time._

_Thanks for the pictures you sent. You were right; Sai __did__ appreciate them. The moment we were all done looking at them, he snatched them right out of my hands and locked himself in his apartment. Again. He hasn't been out since; he must be working hard. I'm a little worried. You know how Sai is; sometimes, he gets so absorbed in his artwork, he forgets to eat. But I made him go to the grocery store last week, so he should still have plenty to eat, and I've threatened him with serious bodily harm if he ever tries to pull the "no-eating stunt" again, so I'm trusting him to take proper care of himself._

_As for this Karin girl, she sounds vaguely familiar. Not sure how, but she does. Send a picture of her whenever you have the time; it might jog my memory._

_Sasuke and Kiba both want to know if you've seen their older siblings. They're both worried, though you know they won't admit it._

—Naruto frowned as he read. Out of the two Uchiha brothers, he had honestly expected Sasuke, belligerent and moody as he was, not his frankly pacifistic older brother, to enlist. But pacifist or not, Itachi had established for himself a reputation as a fearsome captain in Special Op.s. Hana was a medic.—

_And now for the big news. I'm PREGNANT!!! I'm about two months along, and words can not even describe my joy._

—Naruto nearly choked on the water he was drinking. _She's pregnant?! _he nearly screamed. _Isn't she on birth control?! _Then he smiled foolishly. _Shoot me, I'm gonna be an uncle.—_

_Everybody misses you, and we're all hoping you'll be able to come home soon. If anything, I'm hoping you'll be home in time for the baby to be born._

_Love, _

_Sakura_

_P.S. I've sent you something. If the box gets to you intact, I think you'll appreciate it; it was Iruka-sensei's idea._

_P.S.S. Jiraiya and Tsunade have both sent notes. They should be in the envelope with this letter._

Naruto smiled as he folded the letter and put it in the small wooden letter box everyone had sent him last Christmas, then reached for the cardboard box that had come with the letter. The bright sun of the semi-arid plains beat on the brown tarp, making the tent almost hellishly hot, but Naruto didn't really care.

The box showed obvious signs of having been put through the customs officer; the heavy packing tape had been sliced through, with a new layer applied over it and a big red stamp on the top of the box reading _'APPROVED'. _Naruto put the box on his knees and used his trench knife to break through the packing tape.

A slow, broad grin broke across his face. Six perfectly circular cup tops greeted his bright blue eyes, and his stomach rumbled accordingly. _Cup ramen…_

Remembering the notes Sakura had mentioned, Naruto reluctantly put the box on the ground (he had a bottom bunk) and tipped the envelope upside down.

Two small pieces of paper fluttered out onto the hammock-like bunk. Naruto read the one closest to him first, and the flamboyant handwriting immediately marked it out as being Jiraiya's.

_Good luck with the girl, but if you're not careful she'll break your heart and run off with all your money. –Jiraiya_

Naruto raised an eyebrow. _Now what's that supposed to mean? _Realization kicked in. He shook his head irritably. "Ero-sennin's finally starting to go senile." It was a serious possibility that the college lit professor was either losing his grip on reality or was just trying to be annoying. Maybe both.

The second note's handwriting was noticeably smaller, a little difficult to read and considerably more sophisticated. Clearly Tsunade's.

_Don't get shot out there. I expect you to come home __alive__ and relatively whole. And don't listen to the old pervert. And what on earth do you mean by "crazy like us"?_

_Tsunade_

Tsunade was without a doubt the only woman alive who could talk about someone getting shot in such a totally blasé manner of speaking.

Naruto caught the whiff of sake on the paper and wondered if Tsunade had been drinking while she had written the note. Tsunade had not been happy about Naruto's enlisting by any stretch.

In her youth, Tsunade, like Jiraiya, had been a soldier. Specifically, she had been a combat medic, one skilled enough that she had later gone on to head the only hospital in Konohagakure with a remarkable degree of competence. After the death of her brother and fiancé in quick succession (both killed on the battlefield), though, she had become fiercely anti-war, to the point of deserting and actually managed to evade arrest for four years, hopping around the countryside, Shizune in tow (Tsunade had legally adopted her, home-schooled her on the run until she was eight, and if her fiancé had lived Shizune would have been Tsunade's niece anyway), before Konoha had granted her amnesty if she would just come back and work at the hospital.

All of this had happened before Naruto was born. Somehow, the interesting things _always_ happened before he was born.

Since then, Tsunade had organized several anti-war demonstrations, all peaceful (and with her commanding, it stayed that way) but vehement in their message. She had pleased with Naruto again and again to try and keep him from enlisting, and Naruto had to admit it hurt a bit to know that someone he cared about and knew cared about him was part of the reason they weren't being sent enough supplies on the front lines anymore. Tsunade wasn't someone to throw away her principles just because a kid she cared about was fighting in the war.

Naruto sighed, stuck the notes into his letter box, pulled on his boots and stepped outside, the brilliant sunlight hurting his eyes.

.x.X.x.

The camp was mostly deserted. Uzuki-taicho and her crew were on assignment, and Yamato-taicho (the captain of Naruto's unit) was running reconnaissance in the nearby town. The two units ran on rotation; Special Op.s missions tended to be high-stress and high-exertion, so no one could risk burning out.

There was really no schedule for meals, but what Naruto had learned was that lunch tended to be held around that time, and sure enough familiar pungent smells were emanating from the mess tent.

It wasn't exactly the desert he was in. It was semi-arid, mostly rocky, heavily uneven terrain and broken earth, the only vegetation being the occasional small, gnarled tree. It rained probably once every couple of months, and when it did it rained _hard_. The last rain had flooded the women's tent (the men and women were segregated to avoid complications and accusations), necessitating that they stay in the men's tent for a few days. If he went about twenty miles south, then he would be in the full desert.

However, it was still brutally hot, Naruto was wondering if he should ask the Sabaku siblings how they had survived over ten years in full desert heat when he could barely stand the semi-arid heat, and unfortunately, the heat tended to make heighten the strong, sometimes unpleasant smells coming from the mess tent.

Naruto's lips twitched as he thought of the cup ramen sitting back in the tent. But then he pushed those thoughts aside. He was going to save those for a special occasion.

As Naruto somewhat unwillingly (before enlisting, he had never known that there would be food he _wouldn't_ be enthusiastic about eating) made his way towards the mess tent, he saw a familiar face as the flap of the hospital tent was pushed aside.

"Karin!" She looked up, surprised to hear her name shouted across the camp, as he walked over to her, thankful for a familiar face in the half deserted camp.

Karin stuffed her latex gloves into her coat pocket, shielding her eyes with her hand against the piercing sunlight. "Oh, it's you," she half-muttered, almost as if she had been expecting someone else, eyes going blank for a moment. Then her face cleared. "What, are you going to get something to eat too?"

"Yeah."

As they neared the mess tent, the powerful odor become so strong that they paused and stopped, either unable or unwilling to take another further, rubbing the toes of their boots in the dust.

"I really envy Yamato-taicho right now," Naruto admitted, trying not to breathe through his nose. "He's eating city food; that's guaranteed to be at least halfway decent."

Karin put a hand over her mouth and nose, ostensibly in disgust. "The stuff _does_ make three pints of blood smell like roses. But what d'you expect when the most the cook's given to work with is—"

"Nyahh, please don't tell me." A thought occurred to him; he smiled. "Hey, Karin. Do you actually want to eat this stuff?"

She snorted indelicately. "Does anyone? It's either this or go out there—" she stuck her thumb in the direction of the barren wilderness "—and get your meals yourself." Karin tapped her glasses and laughed ruefully. "I can barely see the tarantulas before they're halfway up my leg, so hunting isn't much of an option for me."

"I got something in the mail today that'll make much better eating than whatever's in there."

.x.X.x.

"Not that I'm complaining or anything, Naruto, but isn't that contraband?" Karin asked pointedly as Naruto took two cups of microwavable ramen out from under his bunk. He had pinned the tent flap back to let a reasonable amount of light in. The sharp white light cast a long rectangle of brightness across the ground and some of the bottom bunks, Naruto's included; his was the third from the threshold.

Naruto grinned brightly and shook his head. "If it's contraband, then why didn't the customs officer confiscate it when he went through the box?"

There was an old microwave at the far end of the tent from the door, hooked up to an external generator that allowed it to work. No one was entirely sure why it was there and not in the mess tent, especially considering hardly anyone ever got foodstuffs from home that could be microwaved.

It was pork ramen, heavily laden down with salt. Naruto was a little disappointed to see that the deep cups came with plastic spoons instead of chopsticks, but he wasn't terribly specific about what he ate his food with. "I was going to save this for a special occasion, but now's as good as any time."

They used water from their canteens to fill the bowls to the appropriate depth. As Naruto struggled to make the microwave work, a low-pitched stream of expletives issued from his mouth, making Karin's lips twitch in wry amusement. She said nothing, knowing better than to provoke him, but smiled and watched.

The buttons wouldn't respond when he pushed them. And when they did, nothing worked the way it was supposed to. Naruto snarled as the power button refused to turn on. "You know," he looked up at Karin, "I have this friend back in Konoha—his name's Kankuro—who could make this thing work like it was brand new."

"Is he good?"

"You bet. He could probably fix this thing just by breathing on it. You know, he once jerry-rigged a car battery to power this sort of microwave."

"He sounds tech-savvy." Karin's smile flipped back and forth from amused to sympathetic as she watched him wrestle with the microwave. "There's a Bunsen burner in the hospital tent, if you want to use that…"

"That's alright." Naruto waved her offer aside without ever looking up. "I don't wanna melt the cups. Besides, how do you even make it work with a gas source to power it?"

She shrugged. "I have my ways."

Finally, Naruto got the microwave to work, and put the two cups of ramen inside. While they waited for it to finish, Naruto asked Karin, "So, you got any friends here?"

Karin, who was sitting on the bunk, twitched. "Not at this camp. I enlisted with two friends of mine, but a few weeks ago I was transferred to this base, and they weren't."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, and quirked a smile. "What, no boyfriends?" His tone was teasing, and he barely knew why.

She shot a mock glare at him, flipping her ponytail. "No, _no _boyfriends. I had one a few years ago, but I broke up with him." Heading off another question into her social life, she added, "He had ideas about pleasure that weren't particularly compatible with my health."

Naruto thought about that for a moment, then fervently wished he hadn't. While shaking out uncomfortable images, he barely heard Karin ask "And you?" and hastily responded. "Nah-uh. I had a friend named Lee who wanted to enlist, but he couldn't because of a boxing injury. And as for girlfriends…"

His eyes stared at the tent ceiling as he thought about it. Naruto wasn't unhappy with his love life, per say, but it did take a lot of thinking for such a simple thing. "Well…" he said slowly. "There was this one girl I dated for a really long time. She got married to a friend of mine this spring."

"And this doesn't bother you at all?" Karin's incredulous tone rose above the noise the microwave made as it rotated the cups and heated them.

Naruto shrugged. The gesture made sunlight glitter off of the prism shape of Tsunade's quartz necklace. "Not really. Should it?" he asked casually.

"Hell yeah it should! If my best friend started dating my ex, it sure would bother me! How recently did you break up with her?"

"We didn't really break up." Naruto's brow furrowed; it wasn't always easy for him to describe such things; he couldn't help it if he wasn't particularly articulate. "We just drifted apart. When I got sent over here, we agreed that whatever happened happened, and that she wouldn't get mad about it. We're still good friends."

Karin rolled her eyes and shook her head, brushing her bangs out of her eye. A curious tug pulled at the corner of her mouth. "You are…different."

"Is there something wrong with that?" _Now _he got a little defensive.

"No, no! Most guys I know are a little more possessive of their girlfriends, is all. I had to file a restraining order against _my_ ex."

The ramen tasted good, but Naruto found his stomach churning as he slowly—far more slowly than he was accustomed to eating ramen—downed the salty noodles. "You know," he said quietly, after about four slurps, "this stuff reminds me of home."

Karin looked up, eyes slightly widened, and nodded.

He went on. "There was this one place, little hole in the wall restaurant downtown, that made what was absolutely the best ramen I've ever had. It was called—"

"Ichiraku," Karin finished for him. She smiled, going a little pink in the cheeks; Naruto thought it was a good look for her. "Me and the two friends I mentioned would get breakfast from there every day on the way to school. You know ramen wasn't the only thing he served, right?"

Naruto didn't hear the last sentence. "Where did you go to school?" he demanded.

Karin swallowed down a mouthful of noodles. "The Academy, downtown in that big neighborhood."

"Really? So did I!"

With that revelation, a slow grin came across Karin's face. "Now I know why you seem familiar. Junior year, during the last soccer game of the season, just as Uchiha Sasuke was about to score the first goal of the game, a band member at the very top of the stadium bleachers dropped his drumsticks and screamed "GO TEME!!" so loud that everyone in the stadium could hear him. That was you, wasn't it?"

Naruto laughed in embarrassment, scratching the back of his head. "I'd forgotten about that; Sasuke nearly tripped over his own feet when I screamed that. I can't believe we went to the same high school for four years and never met each other. It's not like it's a really big school or anything."

Naruto frowned into his ramen cup as they continued to eat, thinking. _Four years in the same school…I can't believe I never noticed her…_

.x.X.x.

That afternoon, Uzuki-taicho's squad hadn't returned, and Yamato-taicho was still a quarter of a mile away in the nearest town. There was nothing to do; no one could leave the camp without the permission of one or both of the unit captains.

Naruto was bored. He wasn't in the mood to be writing a letter; there weren't any other diversions. He found himself sitting on a cot in the hospital tent, flipping through his photo album (his friends had sent it to him the very first Christmas he was there) and nursing the disposable camera (he had brought on a whim, supposing he'd get that picture of Karin like Sakura had wanted) while Karin inventoried the supplies, straightened the desk, made sure all the equipment was clean, and so on.

Karin was very much like Sakura, though Sakura didn't swear as often. They were both highly organized and hardworking, and neither particularly liked having free time on their hands if it meant that they couldn't do anything with that free time. Karin's almost compulsive cleaning and organizing probably had a lot to do with frustration over having _nothing_ to do. Naruto decided Karin and Sakura would probably get along pretty well.

He flipped through the photo album. On the very first page was an old, cracked, faded photo of Jiraiya and Tsunade from when they were younger. Jiraiya was grinning, Tsunade keeping a close eye on where his hand was. The sight of it made Naruto smile.

He flipped through the pages, and with the next, his smile broadened into a grin.

When Naruto was thirteen, he and his friends had had a Halloween party, all knowing that they weren't going to be all that interested in celebrating the holiday after that year. And Gaara, Gaara with his macabre sense of humor and his complete _lack of sense_ of normalcy, had come to the party alone, fifteen minutes after his siblings, dressed as Death (specifically, the western grim reaper), hooded black robe, scythe and all. He'd gotten a great many screams that time, and only Sasuke's brother Itachi, who was supervising, had seemed completely unfazed. The picture was all of them standing together in their costumes, Ino's make up running from laughing so hard that she cried, and Gaara was on the far right end, his hood still up over his face.

The pages breathed and fluttered again, and the picture they stopped on made the smile fade from his face. Naruto's parents stood together, his father's arm around his mother's shoulders, the yellowing photo only somewhat less weathered than the one of Jiraiya and Tsunade, except that the features of the two people could be made out much more easily.

Looking at them, happy (it had been such a long time, and Naruto couldn't remember anymore), made his heartbeat slow. And it made him remember something that was nagging him.

"Hey Karin," his voice was laden down with casualness, "I know this is kind of out of the blue, but you look a lot like my mom."

The effect wasn't what he had in mind. Karin's face went a shade of red only slightly less vivid than her hair, fists clenching. "What do you mean I look like you mom?!" she demanded in a harshly shrill voice.

_What's this about_? Naruto decided he really was clueless with women like Shikamaru had always told him. "No, seriously! I've got a picture of her right here. Come look."

Karin took the photo album from him and held it close to her eyes. "I have myopia," she explained. Naruto had listened to Sakura and Ino talk anatomy enough to know that that was nearsightedness.

Karin studied the picture for a few seconds, holding judgment over Naruto's assertion. Then she smiled slightly, handing it back to him. "I'll consider it a compliment that you think I look anything like that woman, but frankly, beyond the hair I don't see much of a resemblance."

"Oh." Personally, Naruto was just relieved she hadn't taken it the wrong way. "Well…umm…"

It was then he realized that she was laughing at him. "What did you think I was going to do?" she giggled. Her face sobered. "Then again, don't answer that." She looked through the photo album again. "Why don't you have any more pictures of her in here?"

Naruto bit his lip. After a moment, he decided he might as well go on and say it. "My mom died when I was little. My dad, too."

Discomfort radiated from Karin like heat from a fire. She twitched. "Uhh…sorry," she muttered, looking down. Clearly desperate to change the subject, she went back to the picture Naruto had shown her. "Is this your dad with her?" she asked, pointing to the fair-haired man standing with her.

Naruto took her cue, changing the subject and feeling the air in the tent lighten considerably. "Yeah, that was him." He stared down at his dad, seeing a smile identical to the one he often wore staring back at him.

Karin brushed the picture with the tips of her fingers. "He looks like you," she murmured. A strange look came over her face, one of sharp longing just barely concealed. She put a mask of indifference over her face before Naruto could see more.

Naruto frowned at it, but did not pursue it. It was better, he knew, not to pry. He remembered Sakura's request and the camera. "Karin…" He picked up the camera. "I wrote to a friend who thinks she might remember you from somewhere. She wanted me to take a picture."

Her normal cheerful expression returned. Karin raised an eyebrow, smiling wickedly. "And you mentioned me in a letter to home because…"

"Because you seemed nice and my friends like to know what's going on out here with me." He felt his face getting hot. "Please?"

"Okay, fine. Let's keep out of the sunlight so the picture won't get blurry."

Karin stood in the corner of the tent, smiling, but as Naruto raised the camera, she moved out of position. "Wait, you're holding the camera wrong."

She came over, standing with her hands on her hips and pursing her lips critically. Then her face lit up. "Now I remember!"

Naruto felt his face get even redder as she stood behind him and put her arms so that her hands are on the camera he's holding. "I took photography classes in high school," Karin explained, who mercifully did not notice the dark red spots on Naruto's face. With clever fingers, she rearranged his hands on the camera to fit her preferences, and Naruto couldn't be more relieved than when she moved away.

Karin stepped back to the spot where she had been standing before, by the desk, and frowned curiously. "Naruto, why is your face so red all of a sudden?"

.x.X.x.

_August 19_

_Dear Sakura-chan,_

_It's 1756 now. It's been a pretty slow day; that's a good thing, as far as I'm concerned. The busy days are when I'm being shot at._

_Congratulations on being pregnant; I know it's too early to tell, but let me know right away when you know if it's a boy or a girl. For some reason, I keep thinking you and Sasuke will have a boy; just hope if that's so he doesn't get your hair._

_I found out that Karin went to the same high school as us; that's probably where you remember her from. I got the picture of her like you asked. I think we're getting to be pretty good friends._

Naruto felt his face get a little warm, and he smiled.

_Not much more to report. No, I haven't heard anything about Itachi or Hana; what, neither one of them write home?_

_Got a question for you though. Just out of curiosity, with you being married and pregnant and all, are you still in medical school? I hope you are; you'd make a great doctor._

_Miss you guys; make sure to tell Temari I said happy birthday._

_Your friend,_

_Naruto_

_P.S. You have no idea what I do for you._

.x.X.x.

The next afternoon, Uzuki-taicho's unit returned to camp.

Karin looked up in shock as four people burst through the threshold of the hospital tent and the smell of blood hit her like the wall of wind after a mortar blast.

Uzuki Yugao was half-supporting, half-carrying one of her men, who was white as a sheet, semi-conscious, and the source of the stench of blood in the air, the two apparently uninjured members of the unit hovering near the tent flap, pale with worry.

"What happened?" Karin demanded, helping Yugao ease the wounded man onto a cot.

"They got the drop on us," the captain panted, pulling off her helmet and tossing it to the ground, revealing frazzled, disheveled violet hair pulled back in a tight knob; her eyes were both drooping with exhaustion and dark with fear. "He got shot in the leg. We treated him as best we could, and for a while he seemed alright. But just before we got back to camp, he started to lose consciousness."

Karin nodded throughout Yugao's description. When she was done, the young medic took action.

"You two!" she pointed imperiously to the two other soldiers. "Wait outside. Uzuki-taicho, stay in here. I'll need your help."

Karin went to the desk and pulled out two surgical masks and another pair of latex gloves. She tossed one of the masks and the pair of gloves at Yugao. "Put these on." Readjusting her own gloves and pulling the mask on over her mouth and nose, Karin started digging through the desk, rooting up equipment. Silently, she cursed the anti-war protestors at home who were keeping the government from sending them fresh supplies.

She pulled out scalpel, needle, forceps, surgical thread, a strong antiseptic, medical gauze and ether (she didn't anything better to anesthetize him with) and a clean bit of cloth to drip the ether on to. She also brought a flashlight over.

As the dark brown eyes of the wounded man stared up at her, fearful and desperate, something cold went through her. "It'll be alright," Karin promised him softly. "Just breathe on this." She dribbled a small amount of ether onto the cloth and put it over his mouth, at the same time removing his helmet.

"What is that you're giving him?" Yugao asked slightly defensively, bristling as if preparing for an attack.

"Ether," Karin explained absently, working to undo the latches on the man's chest armor. "It'll put him out. Now, first we have to get all this armor off of him."

As they worked to get chest armor, the plate armor on his arms and above his knees off, along with his boots and his Kevlar vest, Karin gathered more information as to the man's condition. "I can see he was shot on his right leg. Is the bullet still in? Have you put any antiseptics on it? How much has he bled?"

"Yes, the bullet's in. We were afraid of what that might do if it were taken out. I put rubbing alcohol on it. He's bled a great deal, but like I said, he seemed alright until just before we got back to camp."

Karin pulled a pair of scissors out of her coat pocket and cut away at the trousers on the man's right leg, and pulled away at the makeshift bandage job that either Yugao or one of the other men in her unit had done, and saw the damage. There was a hole in the man's right leg, halfway between the calf and the ankle, oozing black blood even as she pulled the bandages off.

"Uzuki-taicho, I'm going to need you to hold this flashlight over the wound. The first thing I need to do is extract the bullet."

As Karin lowered the forceps near the bronze protrusion, she was startled away by the sound of someone bursting into the tent.

"What's going on?" Naruto demanded, looking around wildly.

Karin's eyes snapped from him to the bullet and back to him again. "Get out!" she shrieked at Naruto in a tone not to be disobeyed.

He didn't hear. "Is there anything I can do to help? I mean, I can hold him down if…"

Karin sighed an_ 'I am the friend of an irredeemable idiot'_ sigh. "I'm performing surgery!" the medic snapped, glaring at him. "Unless you know how to hold a scalpel, then get the hell out!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"Friend of yours?" Yugao asked, still holding the flashlight over the bullet wound.

Karin rolled her eyes before picking the forceps back up. "Idiot of mine." But she was smiling underneath her surgical mask. "Let's keep going."

.x.X.x.

The sky was stained a deep blue with lighter purple clouds near the horizon. The sun had gone down, but the world was caught in twilight, when there was still light enough to see. Lightly did little snowflake stars dot the darkening sky.

A cool wind blew dust across the camp as Naruto sat on the ground, waiting for Karin to emerge from the hospital tent.

Yamato-taicho had returned from the town an hour earlier. When told the story of what had happened to Uzuki-taicho's squad, his dark eyes had gone grim and somber. Naruto himself felt his stomach clench, as though he were holding his breath, waiting for something to happen.

Just as Naruto was beginning to think that maybe he should go to bed and wait until morning, Karin came out.

Her face was slightly gray, the cuffs of her coat doused in blood. A white surgical mask hung from her neck; her eyes drooped slightly.

Naruto stood up, silent. Karin didn't seem to see him.

For a moment, she was still. Then, Naruto watched in shock as she ripped off her gloves and mask and flung them to the ground, slamming her foot on them, twisting her fists and baring her teeth. Hissed expletives made their way to his ears.

"He's dead, isn't he?" Naruto asked gingerly.

She looked up, and Naruto could see shadows under her eyes that spoke more eloquently of exhaustion than any words ever could. "Yeah," she replied, trying not to care and failing.

The light darkened further, and Naruto looked at the glowing sickle moon. Drawing his eyes away from it, Naruto addressed Karin again, feeling a small pull in his gut. "Do you always get this upset after losing a patient?"

She shook her head miserably. "No. It's just that…" She rubbed her forehead with both hands in a gesture of both irritation and hopelessness.

"Okay, okay, why don't we just sit down."

"Don't treat me like a child!" She sat down anyway, her knees arced high. Naruto sat down beside her, and watched as her fingers twitched the way Hinata's often did. "He didn't have to die."

Naruto huddled beside her and frowned at how opaque her eyes seemed behind the thick glass lenses of her glasses. "We didn't have the right equipment, enough skilled technicians on hand…" she spread her hands. "Nothing."

Karin looked sadly at him, lips tightening. "There are some times when dying can't be helped. If you get shot in the heart, chances are you're going to die no matter what's done for you. But this… He was only shot in the leg; with the right treatment, he could have been back on his feet in days. But now he's dead instead."

Her long-fingered hands latched around her calves. "Just goes to show you," she muttered gloomily. "There's no cause worth dying for."

Naruto frowned, hand tracing in the dust. "That's not true. Why are we out here if we aren't willing to die for our country?"

Red eyebrows rose into red bangs. "Are you out here to die?" she challenged. "Did you come out here thinking you'd be cannon food?"

"No, but I came out here to serve Hi no Kuni, to keep everybody I care about safe. If I have to, I'm not afraid to die for them."

She looked up again, an unreadable expression in her crimson eyes. "What happens when the country you serve doesn't always do the right thing?" she asked, quietly, much more quietly than normal.

"What do you mean by that?"

Karin's eyes narrowed. "Do you remember the bombings Konoha orchestrated over Kusagakure, about twelve years ago?" Kusa no Kuni was one of Hi no Kuni's client nations, Taki no Kuni being the other.

He nodded uncertainly. "There was evidence of insurgencies in Kusagakure, and Konoha ordered pilots to bomb the building where they believed the insurgents met."

"The bombings went awry." Her face darkened. "And nearly half the city was destroyed."

"They thought they were doing the right thing," Naruto defended them.

Karin glared at him. "That doesn't change the fact that in the course of "doing the right thing", three thousand innocent civilians were killed, and not a single 'insurgent' was killed. They're _still_ digging bodies out of rubble in Kusa!"

He bit his lip, thinking hard on what she said. Naruto had always known that the upper echelons of Konoha government was corrupt; there wasn't a single village that didn't have to deal with government-level corruption. "Look. I'll admit, Hi no Kuni isn't always something you particularly want to fight for. But I've got friends back in Konoha, friends I _am_ willing to die for. They're counting on me; I can't just let them down."

"Do you really believe that?" There was no more challenge in her voice, only subdued quiet.

Naruto grinned, eyes crinkling upwards in his tanned face. "Yep!"

A soft, gentle smile transformed her face. "That's an interesting way to live. Just remember, it's always better to live than to die. You're not suicidal, Naruto; there's no reason to act like you are."

Then the smile faded back into a far away, uncertain look, Karin's eyes glazing over, and Naruto knew that there would be no way to reach her. He sat back, thinking about the dead man's face and the way a smile had transformed hers.

.x.X.x.

The man was buried just outside of the camp after night fell. Uzuki-taicho insisted on digging the grave he would be put in, and Yamato-taicho was the only one whom she would allow to help her.

Karin watched from the top of a small hill the whole time, her eyes watching but not really seeing as the hole was dug deeper and deeper and the corpse, bound in a makeshift body bag, was finally lowered in with as much dignity as could be afforded in such a situation.

Naruto went in to sleep when it got too dark for him to see the two captains digging anymore. But Karin stayed.

He got up just as the dawn was rising. There was nothing to suggest morning, except that the blackness of night was now a deep purple, and the faint but noticeable pink line at the horizon. The morning star twinkled overhead.

She was still there. Wordlessly, Naruto wondered if she had ever left.

Karin's mouth was twisted in a bitter line, angry and troubled at the same time. She barely looked up as Naruto came to stand beside her, but as he slipped an arm around her shoulders, she leaned into him wearily, squeezing her eyes tightly shut, and Naruto understood.

* * *

Final act, up next!


	3. Chapter 3

Welcome to new reviewer **M**, though I'm not sure if this is an anonymous reviewer or just Masu Trout not logged in. This is the final chapter; hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

The food in the mess tent was a little better than normal. Naruto would later learn that Yamato-taicho had picked up some spices at the town and brought them back to give to the cook.

Naruto frowned down into his bowl. The food may have tasted better than usual, but he still had absolutely no idea what it was. The food tasted faintly meaty; it may have been some sort of broth or stew. He sighed mentally and resolved not to contemplate too closely on what it was he was eating, lifting the bowl to his lips.

"So kid," one of the other soldiers addressed him, a wicked grin splitting his grizzled face. "You've been spending a lot of time with the medic lately."

Naruto felt the beginnings of redness creep into his face. "We're friends. I like to talk to her."

"Oh, come on!" another ribbed him good naturedly. "If you've got yourself a girl, we'll _all _know about it before long! You might as well come clean now."

Naruto stared down at his bowl, knowing his face was absolutely crimson.

"Leave the kid alone," Mitarashi Anko reprimanded them mildly; Yamato-taicho, who was sitting beside Naruto, was frowning slightly. Anko, who along with Naruto was in Yamato-taicho's unit, was Uzuki-taicho's older sister, and why they had different surnames Naruto had no idea; neither of them were married.

Yamato-taicho turned his eyes on Naruto; he was a serious man who preferred to run a tight ship. "Uzumaki, you and I will be running an assignment tonight. Be outside the tent and ready to go at 1900. I hope your aim's sharp."

Naruto grinned. "Yes, sir."

Yamato-taicho then pulled an envelope out of his Kevlar vest. "You got a letter this morning. The postal service apologizes for the delay." As he leaned over to hand Naruto the letter, he muttered, "Don't lose your head over a woman." The solemn captain's poker face broke into a small, sympathetic smile.

At just that moment, before Naruto could react, the tent flap rustled, and Uzuki-taicho stuck her head in the mess tent. "Ah, Yamato, just the man I was looking for," she declared crisply. "The higher ups have finally gotten some new supplies in and I'm going to need help distributing them. Will you come find me after you've finished eating?"

"Of course," Yamato acquiesced, a little too quickly.

The moment Yugao disappeared, Anko started screaming, she was laughing so hard. She tipped her head back, nearly falling off of the bench. "My baby sister?!" she choked out, tears streaming out of her hazel eyes as she stared down Yamato in a mixture of mirth and mockery. The look on Yamato's face indicated that he was far from amused.

"Now who's losing his head over a woman?" Naruto queried mischievously, grinning his typical kitsune grin.

"Uzumaki," Yamato said casually, "shut up."

"Is that an order, taicho?"

"Yes, yes it is."

.x.X.x.

_Dear Naruto,_

_Well, I'm glad you're not spending your days being shot at. That wouldn't do anything for my morning sickness, I can tell you that._

_We celebrated Temari's birthday about a week ago. You know she doesn't really like parties, but she does it because she loves us. Okay, I'm sure the sarcasm has practically saturated the paper by now; honestly, the only reason Temari even showed up is because Shikamaru promised to be here this year. You know how she gets about that lazy bum._

_Oh, and guess who decided to overshadow the birthday party? Gaara. While it was all going on, he dragged Hinata into the next room and finally popped the question! We weren't entirely sure what was going on until we heard her screaming and we went and saw him holding the ring. Gaara had probably the biggest smile I have ever seen on his face. We've all been waiting for this for weeks; Temari didn't mind, thankfully. They haven't quite figured out the date yet, though._

_Hardy har har, Naruto. Sasuke got a real kick out of the hair line. He actually laughed a little. But Sasuke would appreciate it if you would try to figure out anything you can about his brother. Kiba says the same for his sister. And yes, I'm still in medical school. There's no way I'm giving that up._

_I got your picture, and yeah, I do remember Karin now! She worked with us one year, getting photos for the yearbook. Wow, she looks different with her hair pulled up._

_I wish you many more quiet, boring days, and I'll see you when I see you._

_Love,_

_Sakura_

_P.S. What do you mean by "You have no idea what I do for you?"_

Naruto smiled as he folded the letter and placed it in the letter box. Then he snapped on his helmet, slung his rifle over his shoulder and brushed out of the tent. Where he was going, he didn't know.

.x.X.x.

The only things Naruto had ever really liked about the semi-arid God-forsaken wasteland he had been deployed to were the magnificent sunrises and sunsets and the clarity of the night sky. There was considerably less air pollution in Kaze no Kuni than in Hi no Kuni. As he and Yamato-taicho trekked over the uneven terrain, picking their way carefully so as to avoid tripping over rocks and possibly alerting enemy soldiers to their presence, Naruto stared up at the sky. The brilliant stars twinkled back down at him, remote and uncaring, and yet knowing as well.

"Uzumaki." Yamato-taicho's voice was lowered but still resounding, and Naruto turned his head to face the captain's dark-eyed, piercing stare. "Let's stop for a bit. I need to tell you what this assignment entails."

Standing under the sheltering shade of a rock outcropping, Yamato-taicho began to fill Naruto in on the assignment. "The photos the pilots took have revealed the presence of a weapons cache two miles south of base, roughly a quarter of a mile up ahead. The photo shows that four enemy soldiers are hiding weapons in an old shack at the base of an impact crater from the last war. We are to eliminate the enemy there and seize as many of the weapons hidden there as we can. I'll give you further instructions when we reach our destination. Do you understand?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes, sir."

As they kept on walking, Naruto wondered how stiff the resistance would be. He hoped it wouldn't be too stiff. If they got in trouble out there, no one was coming for them.

Finally, they reached the impact crater Yamato-taicho had talked about. It was five hundred feet in diameter and roughly fifty feet deep. The shack was a ramshackle one-story house whose wood planks seemed to be in the process of warping and rotting. A strong, sweet smell, sickening in its aura of something rotting, wafted up to the edge of the crater, to the point that Naruto nearly had to raise a hand over his nose to block out the smell.

"Alright," Yamato-taicho muttered. "There are two exit points. You and I will take up positions at the different doors, at the basin of the crater but a distance away from the house, behind pieces of rubble to give us cover."

"And after that?"

Yamato-taicho swept the area with his eyes; he picked up a large, heavy rock about the size of a large orange. "When I give the signal, take a large rock like this and throw it at the door. If we're lucky, it'll draw the enemy right out."

After they had descended the hill, Naruto and Yamato-taicho took their positions, Yamato-taicho covering the front door and Naruto the side door. Naruto found a suitable rock and checked to make sure he could see his captain clearly, pulling down his night-vision goggles.

He waited for the signal, heart thudding suddenly in anticipation. Yamato-taicho nodded to him. At the same time, they stood up and hurled heavy rocks at the doors, before quickly huddling back down and readying their rifles. Naruto heard a loud thud from where the rock his the side door.

For a moment, there was utter silence so resounding that it threatened to deafen him. Then…

"Who's out there?!" A bullet whizzed past Naruto's ear as a man's voice rang out in the night, and after that, he was only aware of firing and reloading, firing and reloading…

"Uzumaki!" It was Yamato-taicho's voice that brought him back to reason; Naruto shook his head, and wondered how long he had been shooting. His captain came and stood by him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "They're done. Let's go up and see what we've got."

Naruto peeled off his goggles and nodded, still shaken by the way he had lost control of his rifle and of himself.

It was dark enough that from a distance, it couldn't be seen where the bodies laid. But when they got close enough…

"Oh, God," Naruto whispered, eyes round with shock…

The four corpses were that of a man, a woman and of two boys, one adolescent and the other not even thirteen. None of them wore uniforms, and only the man was armed.

"What…why…" Naruto gaped at his companion.

Yamato sighed wearily, removing his helmet to reveal hair flattened by sweat and running a hand through it, making it stick up at odd angles. "In times of crisis, Sunagakure will ask civilians to house weapons supplies in their homes." He cast a dark glance at Naruto. "And don't ever assume that we wouldn't do that same thing, if we were desperate enough. Because we would."

Naruto momentarily felt as though he was going to be sick.

"Come on." Yamato's voice shattered the tense quiet, tired and dull. "Let's go find where they were hiding them."

As Yamato bent his head to cross the threshold, he stopped, and knelt by the younger of the two boys. Almost gently, he closed the boy's eyes, all the while murmuring, "If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, my friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie; dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."

Naruto had seen that poem many times before. When the two had still lived together, it had hung on the wall of the Uchiha brother's apartment; Itachi had put it up on the wall himself. Naruto swallowed, something heavy lodging in his throat.

.x.X.x.

Over the next few days, Naruto managed to put his last assignment somewhat from his mind. He still thought about it in the odd hours, remembering the open, glazed eyes of the older boy. Strangely, or maybe not strangely, the only time he was able to put it completely out of his mind was when he was with Karin.

Karin herself was riding high, thanks to the shipment of medical equipment and medications that had come with the recent weapons shipment.

While Naruto relaxed on a coat, Karin continued to chatter. They both liked to talk, but Naruto had no intention of interrupting her; it was pleasant to listen to her talk.

When Naruto thought about it, the soldier was right. He _had_ been spending a lot of time with Karin lately.

Naruto propped his head up on his knobby elbows. He liked her. _So what if I like her?_

…_Okay, so what if I like her _a lot_?_ Naruto felt his face go red…again. _Okay, so I've put my finger on the problem. How do I go around resolving it?_

At that point, Karin interrupted his train of thoughts. "Oi, Naruto, are you even listening to me?"

"Yes, I'm listening to you," Naruto assured her, smiling in a way that was meant to be reassuring but probably came off as goofy.

She nodded firmly. "Good. So I looked at the idiot and I said, "Well how are you sure it's tuberculosis?" I was trying to be calm, 'cause you know if this guy starts spreading it around to the camp that he has tuberculosis, it's gonna raise ten kinds of hell.

"Well, he didn't have a good answer; guess he was just a bit of a hypochondriac. This guy remains convinced that he has tuberculosis, even though he was wounded recently and that that was a perfectly reasonable explanation for why he would be coughing up blood.

"And you know what I told him next? I said, "You do _not_ have tuberculosis. What you probably have is internal bleeding, which means if you don't get proper treatment you'll probably die anyway. Happy now?"

A low-pitched laugh bubbled up from Naruto's throat. "And how did he take it?"

Karin sighed. "Not well. Inuzuka-san thought it was pretty funny, Uchiha-taicho…Not so much. The moment he found about it, he told me he was transferring me to a camp with no hypochondriacs."

The names Inuzuka and Uchiha rang bells in Naruto's head. "Inuzuka and Uchiha? As in, Inuzuka Hana and Uchiha Itachi?"

Karin frowned and looked at him, smoothing down a stray strand of hair as she did so. "Yeah. Why?"

"Nothing. They're older siblings of two friends mine, and they haven't bothered writing home. Go on."

She smiled and sat down on the cot beside his. "There's nothing more to say. Story's over."

Just as Naruto was about to reply, the customs officer came in to the hospital tent. His face was unusually somber. "Letter for you, Uzumaki." As he handed Naruto the letter, he muttered, "Sorry." Then he left, seemingly thankful to be relieved of the letter.

Naruto frowned, feeling a strong sense of foreboding come over him. He met Karin's bright red eyes, just as confused and bewildered as his.

She shrugged. "Might as well read it."

Still frowning, Naruto opened the envelope, and unfolded the letter. And felt his heart stop after reading the first sentence.

"Wh-what…" he gasped, feeling himself begin to shake. He shook his head. "Can't be serious…" _Oh God, this is wrong, it has to be…_

"What is it?" Karin demanded. "Tell me!"

He handed her the letter.

Adjusting her glasses, Karin read the letter out loud, brow furrowing as she did so, noting the smudges on the paper.

_Naruto,_

_I'm sorry I have to tell you this, but Jiraiya has had a heart attack. It happened on September 1; thankfully he was with us when it happened. He's still in the hospital; his condition is stable but fragile._

_Again, I'm sorry I had to tell you this, but it's better that you know now instead of finding out secondhand once you got home._

_Wishing you well,_

_Sakura_

Karin finished reading the letter, and looked down at Naruto feeling a sharp stab of sympathy. Whoever the man who had had a heart attack was to Naruto, they were obviously close. Naruto was breathing hard, his eyes glazed over and wide with panic.

"What am I gonna do?" He asked helplessly, staring down at his shaking hands.

"Okay, okay. Don't hyperventilate." Karin dropped the letter and grabbed his hands. "Calm down and think," she told him in a voice that brooked no opposition. "Go to Yamato-taicho, explain your situation and ask to be allowed to take leave to go home. Soldiers are allowed to go home to visit relatives if there's been a death in the family or if a family member is ill or has been seriously injured."

He didn't smile, but he did seem to calm down, the glossy glaze disappearing from his eyes. "Okay."

.x.X.x.

"That can't be right."

Yamato's lip twitched as he shot Naruto an admittedly sympathetic look. "I'm sorry. The roads are blocked; you can't go back to Konoha. It's estimated that it will take several weeks at least to secure them."

Naruto gritted his teeth, and Karin folded her arms across her chest in concern, saying nothing; Naruto and Yamato were just going to have to sort it out themselves.

Yamato tilted his head, peering intently at Naruto. "Uzumaki…take a break."

Naruto started, tilting his head back incredulously. "Sir?"

"You're a mess. I don't want to take you on assignment, the state you're in." Yamato clapped a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Look, there's a town a quarter of a mile northeast of here. It's not much of a tourist destination, but it will distract you. Go there for the day, and try to clear your head. All I ask is that you be back by tomorrow at noon." Yamato gestured towards Karin. "Take Karin with you. You both have leave coming up anyway."

Karin started, taken aback, and Yamato shot a look at her that said, 'Please_ don't say anything.' _Her mouth clamped shut.

Naruto looked at her uncertainly, his eyelids resting heavy over his eyes. Karin wanted to blurt out _'What are you looking at me for?'_ but didn't. Instead she raised her hands, gratified that he was trying to get her opinion but firm in that it was his decision to begin with. "If you think it will help…"

He smiled gloomily, his shoulders slumping. "Alright then."

"Make sure to wear plain clothes, both of you, so anyone in the town who might be unfriendly will have a harder time identifying you as being from Konoha."

As Naruto started to walk away, Yamato called after him, "Uzumaki? About Jiraiya." Naruto stiffened. "Don't worry about him. Jiraiya was my literature professor in college, and from what I recall of him, it would probably take nothing short of being broadsided by a train to do him in."

_Oh, way to comfort him Mr. Social Reject, _Karin thought unappreciatively, rolling her eyes.

Naruto stopped, and though Yamato (thankfully) couldn't see Naruto's face, Karin noticed how pale and sickened he looked all of a sudden. "Yamato-taicho," he said in a tight, strained voice, "please." Naruto paused and gulped air like a drowning man. "I'm gonna have a hard enough time sleeping tonight."

Yamato sighed once Naruto disappeared. "It was worth a shot. Karin, a word?"

She stopped and stood in front of Yamato. His face was particularly grim. "Make sure he doesn't get into trouble, or get so falling down drunk that he can't walk back here tomorrow."

"Because you being abstinent makes you unable to deal with someone else's hangover?" Her eyebrows quirked sardonically.

The captain folded his arms. "Actually, I am abstinent."

Karin winced. "Anything else, sir?" she asked gingerly.

"Yes." Yamato smirked humorlessly. "The bartenders are _exorbitant_."

"I thought you just said you didn't drink."

"Anything for the sake of information."

.x.X.x.

Karin joined Naruto at the edge of camp about ten minutes after Naruto got there. He noticed that her pale lavender shirt had a high collar and long sleeves uncomfortable in the stifling heat, but didn't ask. He also noticed that her hair (loosed from its severe ponytail) was perfectly neat and straight on one side and unkempt on the other but after years of dealing with Sakura and Ino's less than stellar hair days, Naruto knew far better than to ask.

"You look nice," Naruto remarked, lamely but honestly. "Nicer than me." He gestured down at his worn t-shirt and jeans.

"Thanks."

On the way to the town, Naruto was silent, brooding.

It had been very quiet out there lately. Naruto had experienced these breaks in the heaviest fighting before and he had long since ceased to treat it as anything but a calm in the storm. It was something to be dreaded, not embraced, and the whole camp had been tense for days, except for maybe him and Karin.

The wind whistled insistently; Naruto tried not to sigh. He had missed so much. He only knew about Sasuke and Sakura's wedding through photographs, and when their first child was born he'd probably only know about the baby through pictures too. Two more of his closest friends were getting married, and knowing his luck he'd probably miss their wedding too. And now with Jiraiya.

_The old man had better get well_, Naruto thought bleakly. _I want him to be _alive _when I get home. If I ever get home._

.x.X.x.

"Yamato-taicho was right," Karin muttered. "This place is deadly dull."

The town looked like most Kaze no Kuni towns Naruto had ever been through, not that he had laid eyes on many. The town, possessing neither a strategic location nor any real military value, was not walled. It had wide streets and narrow alleyways, and tall, dull brown buildings with flat roofs and wood shuttered instead of glass windowpanes. The people milled around in the streets, mostly walking or on bicycles (a car was a rare commodity in Kaze no Kuni, where most people walked or hitched a ride on a caravan to get where they wanted to go), but there were a few cars parked on the side of the road.

Naruto smiled wryly. _Karin's hair is probably the brightest thing here._

"It probably gets livelier at night, after the heat's cooled off," Naruto asserted, looking around. It was getting late in the afternoon; deep shadows put stripes across the dusty dirt street.

"You want to get something to eat before hitting a bar?" Karin suggested, following the inviting smells emanating from a nearby building with eager eyes.

"I'm not really all that hungry, but sure."

The restaurant served mainly beef ramen and beef over white rice, doused in onions, yellow peppers and lentils, and to drink all they had was cow's milk, sweet and cool, but it was definitely several steps up from what Naruto had been eating at the camp.

"For someone who said he wasn't hungry, you sure are cleaning out your bowl." Karin watched in amusement as Naruto downed a bit of boiled egg; she snatched a bit of rice from her bowl, chewing considerably more slowly than Naruto.

"I don't believe in wasting food; besides, ramen is my favorite." He managed a wink, to which Karin scoffed a little. "They called me, 'The Living Stomach'. The lunch ladies would weep in fear when I came through the cafeteria."

She rolled her eyes. "Sure."

AS Karin lifted her chopsticks to her mouth, her sleeve fell away from her arm. Naruto frowned. At intermittent distances, there were on her arm crescent-shaped scars, ranging from white to livid. "Karin…are those _bite marks_ on your arm?" His look of incredulity summed up entirely what he was feeling.

Karin frowned and wrenched down her sleeve, frown deepening. "This is why I left my boyfriend," she informed him coolly. "These hurt. A lot."

"Ahh."

They continued to eat on in silence. When Naruto finished his ramen, Karin looked up at him and asked, "The man named Jiraiya…Is he your uncle or your grandfather or something?"

Naruto shook his head. "He's my godfather. He's taken care of me ever since my dad died."

She adjusted her glasses; it seemed to be something of a nervous twitch. "So you two are close, then?"

"Yeah, we are." Naruto fidgeted with the chopsticks, and took a large swig of the milk.

Karin's eyes narrowed, the crimson of her irises becoming the only thing visible between skin and eyelashes. Naruto started when fingers touched the top of his hand. "I'm sure he'll be alright. Besides," she pulled an absolutely evil grin, "is he the sort of guy who'd want a crazy man like you obsessing over his health?"

The look on her face was so ridiculous that Naruto couldn't help but laugh. "No, he's not."

.x.X.x.

The sun was starting to go down in earnest when they left the restaurant; the buildings looked red instead of brown.

Karin frowned as she looked around. "Now we just have to _find _the nearest bar; Lord, I hope your checkbook's deep, Naruto, because from what Yamato-taicho told me the drinks will not becoming cheap tonight."

Naruto shrugged. "Pain for pleasure."

Finally, they found one, near the center of the town and two blocks over from the hospital.

The bar was nicer than a lot of the bars Naruto had been in in his life; Jiraiya had dragged him to some seedy bars in his time. It was dimly lit, had many tables and an open bar in the back, and music was playing at a loud but not unbearable volume.

"It looks decent," Karin commented dubiously. "I've seen better, though."

"And I've seen far, far worse. Come on, let's go get seats up at the bar."

The bartender was nowhere to be found—probably in the back, getting more liquor for the patrons—and Karin showed herself to unamused by the bartender's absence. "What kind of bartender leaves the bar unattended?" she muttered aloud, clearly not wanting to be answered.

Meanwhile, Naruto's neck was prickling. He looked around to see who was staring at him.

The bar was configured in a rectangular fashion; there was one long side, two much shorter sides, and an open end that allowed the bartender to work. Naruto and Karin were sitting on the long end, and when Naruto looked to the short end on his right, he met the gaze of two men, one so tall that he literally had to bow his head to keep from hitting the low-hanging light fixtures.

"Suigetsu," Naruto heard the taller man say quietly, "can we _please_ just go sit at one of the tables? This isn't comfortable for me."

"Hold that thought," the smaller man replied. "I see someone we know. Karin? Karin?!"

She started, squinting at the two men as they came over and sat, one on either side of Naruto and Karin. "Suigetsu? Juugo? What are you two doing here?"

The smaller man, Suigetsu, smirked. "Uchiha-taicho's commandeered one of the hotels due to "sanitary concerns". You know how that guy is about cleanliness."

Karin introduced her two friends to Naruto, who assumed that these were the two friends from the other unit she had talked about. Suigetsu grinned a full-length Cheshire Cat's gin as he and Naruto leaned forward, extending hands across the table to shake hands, exposing a long row of very sharp teeth as he did so.

"Don't let his size fool you," Karin said about Juugo. "This guy's nothing but a big softie."

"Just don't make him mad," Suigetsu advised him. "There's a reason he's in the berserker unit."

Naruto looked up at Juugo, who silently smiled back down.

Suigetsu, with his slightly nasal, penetrating voice, soon broke the silence. "So what, Karin? Is this guy your boyfriend?" The wicked gleam in his purple eyes indicated that they had had this conversation before, and Suigetsu's smirk widened.

Karin smiled predatorily. "What's the matter, Fish-boy? Jealous?" Her voice was far too sweet.

As the two argued, Naruto looked on, confused. "Is this normal?" he asked Juugo, bewildered.

Juugo nodded, the suspicion of a conspiratorial smile on his face. "Suigetsu prefers women, but Karin has been casting aspersions on his sexuality since they were old enough to know what sex was. I'm not sure why, really. They've had this sort of relationship for the best part of thirteen years now."

They eventually quieted down, and the bartender, a young woman with brown hair, came out of the back, put up a few bottles, and approached the four. "What'll you have?"

Suigetsu grinned. "Whiskey."

Karin groaned "You're not starting with _that_ again, are you?"

"What?! I like whiskey!"

The bartender turned to Juugo. "What about you, sir?"

Juugo shook his head. "None, thanks."

"And for you two?" she asked Karin and Naruto.

"Sake, please."

"The same."

As they were waiting for their drinks, Karin turned to Naruto. "Don't drink too much. I may be strong physically—" she smirked "—ask Suigetsu about the incident with the hotel room door—" Suigetsu noticeably winced "—but I don't think I could carry you home."

"What said I was going to get that drunk?" Naruto protested.

The shadows of the dim lights made her eyes seem more deep-set than usual. "Considering how stressed out you were earlier, I wouldn't be surprised."

"I _never_ get drunk. I've watched what happens to people who do way too many times. I don't even drink all that much to begin with."

Karin raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "I'm gonna hold you to it."

The drinks came. Suigetsu immediately began to swallow his down with great gusto.

"Cleaning out the house again?"

"Screw you. This is my first taste of whiskey in six months, and I intend to enjoy it."

Overall, Naruto decided he liked Karin's two friends. Suigetsu could be obnoxious at moments, and Naruto was most comfortable around people who talked a little more than Juugo, but they were alright.

Suigetsu would make a remark, and Karin would either scoff or laugh, and Naruto could tell a fake laugh from a real laugh by the way her eyes would or wouldn't crinkle mid-laugh. During some of his more outrageous stories, Juugo would insert his own points of view and mildly point out when Suigetsu was lying, much to Suigetsu's chagrin.

Not to be outdone, Naruto made a few jokes of his own, none of them very good; they were meant to entertain the audience rather than provoking laughter. For the most part, Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo assumed identically blank looks whenever he started to tell a joke. His stories of his and his friends' high school antics achieved a little more success.

"Do you remember the senior pranks the year we were seniors at that school?"

"I do," Juugo piped up unexpectedly; it was the first time he had spoken in about fifteen minutes. "It had three parts. First, some students got together before school and moved every desk in every classroom into the center of the room, stacking them in a pyramid and then wrapping them with plastic wrap so they couldn't be broken apart.

"Second, someone put huge banners across Professor Orochimaru and Professor Hatake's doors, reading, "The Deepest Pit of Hell; Enter at Your Own Risk," and "A Pervert Lives Here," respectively. The one across Professor Orochimaru's door was covered in ketchup to make it look like blood."

Suigetsu guffawed. "I can still remember the look on Orochimaru's face!"

"Yes, he was livid, especially after the ketchup started to go bad. Finally, at the last period of the day, someone let all the live toads in the science labs—upwards of a hundred, as I understand—loose into the halls. The female students were not appreciative."

"I orchestrated it!" Naruto declared proudly.

Karin frowned at Juugo. "Juugo, you were already in college when this happened. How did you know about it?"

"You and Suigetsu told me. You showed me pictures too."

Karin laughed ruefully, rubbing the back of her head. "I guess I'd forgotten." She addressed Juugo, but her eyes were on Naruto.

.x.X.x.

"Do you think we should head back to camp tonight?"

"And be shot at for showing up in the dark? No thanks. Besides, I'm looking forward to taking a shower, because frankly, after several months of no bathing, we both _stink._ The only reason you don't notice it at the camp is because you're so used to the smell that you start experiencing nasal fatigue."

It was black night. Suigetsu and Juugo walked a few yards in front of Naruto and Karin. The latter for some reason latched her arm around Naruto's; Naruto didn't know why, but he wasn't complaining.

"How long have you known those two?" Naruto asked suddenly, nodding towards the two young men.

"Ever since I moved to Konoha, so since I was ten."

He looked at her, slightly confused. "You weren't born in Konoha?"

"No, in Kusa."

"Huh. You sound just like a native, though."

They fell into silence, Naruto listening to the soft sounds of other people talking and laughing, to the sound of a television set just inside of a home they passed, to the blustery wind blowing outside the town and sweeping through the streets.

"It's…quiet tonight," Naruto whispered.

"Yeah, it really—"

A shattering boom broke Naruto's illusion of silence. Immediately, all four dropped to the ground, looking for the source of the explosion. The sound of shattering stone echoed nearby, along with a bright yellow light flickering over the rooftops.

"What was that?!" Suigetsu shouted over the noise, looking around wildly.

"Bombing raids!" Naruto shouted back. "Suna forces must have found out about the Konoha unit stationed in the hotel!" A plane screamed overhead.

Naruto looked to his right. Karin was huddled with her hands over her head in a protective fashion.

He shook her arm. "You alright?" Naruto asked quietly.

She looked up, her eyes slightly wild. "Yeah, I'm fine. When I was little, I—"

The ground shook again, and another bomb blast sent rubble flying down from a building several hundred yards down the street.

"We need to get somewhere safe!"

The moment that was said, a violent boom broke just overhead. Naruto watched in horror as the building beside him collapsed. Rubble, huge shards of rock, came flying towards him, and, unable to dodge in time, he sank into darkness.

.x.X.x.

Karin had flung herself away from the shrapnel almost as soon as the building started to collapse. She had had enough experience with bombing raids to know what to do when one happened.

Her heart was beating fast, her mind racing. It was just like those days in Kusagakure, so much that she could even smell the same odor of smoke and fire in the air.

Karin cleared her mind, pushing herself to her feet. "Oh, shoot," she muttered.

Naruto laid motionless on the ground, blood seeping from his head. He looked almost the same as the day they had met nearly a month ago.

Karin knelt beside him, medic instincts taking over. She put two fingers to his neck. A pulse was there, fluctuating but strong. _Okay._ She sighed in relief. _He's not dead_.

Then, reality came back to her. They were in the middle of an open street with a bombing raid going on. Sharp, shrill screams of explosives and the widespread panic of the populace returned to her. People were dodging around her and Naruto as they ran, screaming, trying to find a safe place.

"Fine time to pass out!" she shrieked. Predictably, Naruto didn't answer. Karin shook his shoulders. "Come on, wake up!"

A hand touched her shoulder. Juugo, for all his instability when it came to chaos was oddly unaffected by the panic. He remained calm and mild.

"The hospital is two blocks away," he said, straining to be heard over the noise. "In bombing raids here, the hospitals are always left alone."

Karin nodded. Suigetsu came and stood beside Juugo, shooting a wary glance at the much-larger man; he knew full well what chaos usually did to him. "Can you handle him?" Juugo was easily the biggest man Karin had ever met, as well as the strongest physically.

Juugo leaned down and hefted Naruto up. "He hardly weighs anything," Juugo remarked.

"Okay, let's go."

Navigating the streets, Karin listened for sounds of bomb blasts while she and Suigetsu worked to move aside stone slabs and other rubble so Juugo could move through with less difficulty.

"Wild night, huh?" Suigetsu laughed as he stared up at the burning sky with an almost manic expression on his face.

Karin stared at him, genuinely shocked. "This is your idea of fun?"

"Why not? If the world seems to be ending, why not enjoy it?"

"You're crazy!"

Suigetsu was as much a lover of chaos as Juugo was not.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity of scraping, ducking, diving and dodging, the hospital came into view.

Karin sighed in relief, and couldn't even hear her own voice as the planes continued to scream bloody murder into the night.

.x.X.x.

_He was dreaming again. Darkness hovered all around him, like storm clouds or a dense blanket. Distant sounds, like sirens or flares, echoed in the distance, the way an ambulance would if he was sitting in the fifth floor of an apartment building and the ambulance was letting off noise five blocks over._

_Naruto wondered where all the light had gone._

When he opened his eyes, his head ached horribly, and it was light. Brilliant white light coming from a window, to be exact.

Naruto's eyes adjusted, and he saw his surroundings. He was in what seemed to be a hospital room; he was lying down on a bed, an IV in his arm. The walls were made of light brown stone like everything else in the town, and the floors were rough brown stone as well. The walls were unfurnished, and the room was silent.

"You're awake!" A loud voice shocked his ears from nearby.

Karin leaned over him, eyes showing her relief clearly on her face. "You idiot, don't do that."

Naruto managed a slight twist of a smile, and pain shot through his head. "So tell me, Doc," he muttered. "How bad is it?"

She rolled her eyes, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Well, I think I'm going to say what I've been meaning to say for a long time. You are, without a doubt, the luckiest bastard I have ever met. You get hit directly with a half-ton slab of rock, and all that happens to you is a concussion and a broken leg. _How_ are you so lucky?"

Naruto fell back on his pillow. "I dunno. Everyone I know has asked me the same thing, at some point."

She smiled warmly, her face glowing. "I'm glad you're alright, Naruto."

Naruto smiled back. "Thanks, Karin." He hesitated for a moment, heart racing, then blurted out, "Hey, Karin. When we get home…" He hesitated again. "When we get home, will you go out with me?"

Karin looked taken aback for a moment. Then, she broke into an even wider smile than before. "Sure." She reached over and squeezed his hand.

Suddenly, a high, loud stream of laughter echoed behind the door. "HAHAHAHA!! I knew it!"

Karin's smile melted off of her face, instead resembling a highly dangerous look of annoyance. "I'll be right back."

The door slammed behind her. "WHAT DID YOU SAY, FISH-BOY??!!"

Naruto grinned weakly.

.x.X.x.

A couple of days later, Naruto was feeling well enough to write a letter home.

_September 12_

_Sakura,_

_I'm writing from the hospital. Don't worry; I'm not too bad off, just a concussion and a broken leg. I'll spare you the details._

_Please let me know as soon as you can about Ero-Sennin's condition; I hope he's alright._

_Not much more to say._

_Oh, just one more thing._

_Sakura, I think I may have a girlfriend._

_Naruto_

_

* * *

_

The quotation Yamato makes is from _Dulce et Decorum est_ by Wilfred Owen.

Okay, finished. Please, R&R.


End file.
